What would be the average age of a Sergeant major in the US Special Forces ?

Question

I am doing some research for a play ? He is male, special forces, and a helicopter pilot. Thank you in advance for your answers.

Answer 1

Take the helicopter pilot out of the equation, and his age would probably be about 40/45 years old

Answer 2

1. I looked this up many months ago and found that the average time in service was 23 years. That would make the average age between 41-58. I know Officers can stay till 62. Not sure if there is a 30 and out for enlisted.

2. There has not been an enlisted pilot since the early days of Viet Nam. Warrants and commissioned Officers only. He could fly rotary on his own dime but the Army would never allow that. Some pilots will let crew chief have some stick time, at least in my day they did.

3. He would have only 6 - 10 peers. CSM at BN, Regiment/Brigade and SOC HQ. There are not that many units in Army SF and Marine SOC (MARSOC) only has 2 BN and a Brigade type HQ above them, that means 3 SGM at most and possibly some Master Gunnery Sgt's (also E9).

4. A SGM is a staff position in Regiment/Brigade/Division/Corps/Army/Arm... Group. Command Sgt. Major is a command position in the same structure but add Battalion.  (just below Reg/Brigade) Never have seen a plain SGM at BN. CSM rank has a added oak leaves around the star and we addressed them as Command Sgt. Major unless he said CSM was OK.

I would say a bit of a rewrite is in order.

SSG US Army 73-82

Edit: Jerry (Master Chief or Command Master Chief) is dead on with the minimum age. The stats I found in the past were average years in before making E9. I think 17 years is minimum for the Army and would require time in grade waivers. Not sure about the Navy.

Answer 3

He would be anywhere from 34 to 48 years old.

Most likely around 38 years old.

But forget him being a helicopter pilot.

Task Force 160 pilots are either Warrant officers or Commissioned Officers.

Answer 4

Despite PUNKAZZ's "promoted fastly" remark...  If he was promoted everytime he was eligible...  It would be two years to E4, then 3 each to E5, E6, E7, E8 and E9... by my math that is 17 years... if he joined at 18... he would be a minimum of 35 years old....

Answer 5

uh.. he could be 20 if u wanted him to be... because technically he could be whatever age, because he could have been da best the special forces ever seen and he was promoted fastly....

Answer 6

35-42 years of age. Leave the helicopter pilot business out. Just suggest that he learned some basics of operating a chopper and use that as a dramatic device when the regular pilot of the chopper lifting the team out from the LZ is killed and he has to fill in.